Spicy Chicken and Sweet Potato Meal Prep Magic

I start strong with my declaration that spring my least favorite season. I walk around obnoxiously saying that I really prefer summer and fall and maybe even the first few days of winter, but spring? not so much.

and then spring comes around and the air tastes like flowers and dirt and rain and I don’t have to wear a jacket and we can keep the windows open at night and I remember that, yes indeed! I actually love spring. Or more like I NEED spring. Isn’t it just such a sweet drink for the soul?

Is it just me, or does this spring season feel especially life-giving? I feel like as soon as April came around the corner, I just dove headfirst into a few months of all things New and Fresh and Life.

Like for example. We have a new studio that we’re setting up which means a non-stop stream of energy and inspiration and re-arranging every time I look up. And we just finished a round of workshops for the first time ever, which means new friends and new work and fresh excitement. Our living room has fallen victim to my spontaneous 11pm idea to “just move that one end table real quick” and is now undergoing a major re-fresh involving light and airy paint colors, less clutter, and a more open furniture arrangement which has overall made our house 900x more wonderful to live in. We got rid of our TV – like, officially sold it – SO LONGGG friend! and in its place, sort of, I’m on a book-reading binge which is code for going to bed an hour earlier than usual. Not mad about it.

As I mentally prep for my birthday next week (30!), I’m feeling strangely inspired to really take care of myself – eating well, exercising, getting plenty of sleep, not breaking my back over my love of a food blog, etc. I mean, I’ve always been semi-excited about health and self-care and bla bla bla, but I feel like at some point in these last few weeks, I got bit by a springy new-self bug that is making me especially committed to doing life well and enjoying it as much as possible.

Oh, right. Did you like that? How I glossed over that one little detail?

Yeah: I’m turning 30 soon.*

*when you write something that you know is true but have to do a double-take to see if its real like WHAT I’m fine tho

**tips for how to turn 30 well can be left in the comments

With the new life and the freshness of spring, I’ve also been feeling a renewed sense of energy towards cooking. Just cooking for real, regular life. Like how I used to, before I cooked for the blog. Back when I used to cook because I was actually hungry and needed a meal to eat. *mind blowing* The way I fell in love with food just for being food.

It feels sort of backwards, actually, like I can sense a new wave of food and recipe inspiration coming, but in order to get there I need to just erase all the extra things and embrace the simplicity of making food that is scaled down to its most minimal wonderfulness. Food that we will actually want to make and eat for dinner. Maybe it’s me being lazy or maybe it’s being a food blogger and needing to work around food so much, but sometimes regular life cooking loses its sparkle and I end up eating more sushi takeout than should ever be legal and it’s not even bad because sushi is SO DELICIOUS. But you get it, right?

I need SPRING!

I want that FRESH START.

That’s what this Spicy Chicken and Sweet Potato Meal Prep Magic situation is all about. It’s me saying: I see you, hungry person with an empty fridge on a busy Monday (ugh, aren’t Mondays so rough? come ON, life), and I acknowledge the weariness that you’re carrying, BUT YOU AND I? WE CAN DO THIS.

You can you can you can. This requires 45 minutes of mostly-hands off time, and you can feel really good about it because it looks pretty and tastes delicious, especially with a big ol’ side of avocado and hummus. And then you can enjoy it 5x over in all its different forms (cold salad! warm veggie / rice bowl! soup! pasta! taco! cause I don’t know, maybe you like broccoli in your tacos? whatever) and appreciate all the yummy nutrition and back-to-dinner-table-basics it brings into your life.

By making regular meals, feeding myself good food on the most basic level and not stressing about all the other stuffs, this is what I’m trying to do: I’m trying to leave a little margin in my life for some above and beyond food inspiration. Going backwards to go forwards. It’s me and maybe you starting a wave of fresh new energy by just going super simple, totally stripped down, completely basic on ourselves.

Hey guys bonus! basic is also delicious. So long as I got my dollop of hummus and my avocado for sides, I can honestly say that even as a sauce-a-holic I did not miss any sort of sauce here. WHAT is even going on. Who knew?! Basic is the new Next Level.

So since I’ve said basically nothing about the food yet and it’s now the end of the post, let me just say this.

This “recipe” is less of specific recipe and more of a concept that we’ve been loving lately. Loving as in EATING IN OUR REAL LIFE. I didn’t make this for the blog – I made it for real life first. And now I love it so much that I want to share it on the blog. And that order feels refreshing.

Here’s the concept: Fill sheet pans up with good ingredients – vegetables, protein, etc. – toss with olive oil and good salt and spices, roast for a while, then pack into containers for easy eating and lunch-taking and meal-building all week.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Toss the chicken pieces with the spices and a quick stream of olive oil. Stir to combine; store in the fridge for about 30 minutes while you prep other ingredients.

Arrange the vegetables on their own sheet pans (preferably ones with edges to catch drips, etc.). Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle generously with salt. Arrange the chicken on a separate sheet pan.

Bake all ingredients for 12-15 minutes. Remove the broccoli and chicken. Stir sweet potatoes and roast another 15 minutes or so.

Done! Divide your servings out into containers and be happy you have meal starters ready for the week! 😀

Notes

*I am currently having a moment with this Cajun seasoning mix - it's a super versatile mix of garlic, salt, onion, paprika, oregano, white pepper, and red pepper, and just the right amount of spicy for us. It would be really easy to make yourself, too, like so. But really, any spice mix you like could work here. The only guidelines I'd give would be to adjust based on salt and spiciness. So if your mix doesn't have salt in it, add plenty of salt yourself, and if it's not spicy enough, add a little cayenne.

Also - any vegetables will work here! This is the combo we're currently loving, but asparagus has treated us well as have kalettes, brussels, and carrots.

Indeed! Every day is a gift and a blessing. Turning 30 is great, it sure beats turning 50! Just kidding. I know 50 will be FABULOUS.. Here at 36, I can laugh but 50 is peaking around the corner. Anyhow, another smashing recipe. Actually bought a huge bag of sweet potatoes yesterday with no plans. So now I can make this!

Turning Thirty is my most favorite thing that I’ve ever done. 🙂
Granted, I didn’t have much of a choice in the matter but if there’s a theme that is following me throughout this decade (granted, I’m only 2 years into it), it’s FREEDOM!
I started a hashtag that my best friends and I use every time that we experience unexpected freedom. For example, a few weeks ago I got a new, relatively edgy haircut and I love it. It feels awesome. I like the way it looks. NO ONE HAS EVER COMMENTED ON IT! Even though it’s a pretty extreme change from what I had before. I assume that they haven’t said anything because they don’t like it. But more than anything, I am so surprised by the way that I haven’t cared at all that others might not like it. I texted my best friend about it and she wrote back, #thisisthirties. 😀

Definitely late to the party here but I just discovered your blog…. I LOVE doing cajun seasoning (I use Walker and Sons) on sweet potatoes!! Everyone thinks I’m nuts but I really feel to balance the sweet with heat and add a hit of acid with lemon is such fun flavors 🙂 I’m so happy to see you use these ingredients in such a great way!

Love hearing that, Lauren! I am one year away and I am actually a little excited about it 🙂 I feel like I will definitely be a more confident, joyful and certain version of me 🙂 Already working my way to it 😉

yes,I’ve heard that from multiple people! I am not sure if I’m *excited* about being 30, but I AM so grateful to have the chance to have lived to see my 30th birthday and then some! It’s been a wild ride and there’s so much more good stuff ahead! Gratitude wins!!! 🙂

Love this 🙂 I can feel your excitement and I am forever trying to find the balance in cooking for the blog vs. cooking for us in real life and trying new recipes and staying creative, yet making things that people will actually EAT and not just think are pretty. And this, my friend, is definitely both 🙂 Meal planning and I are having some words right now -_- but I will certainly be doing a version of this soon 🙂

This is basically one of the meals I make almost every Sunday when I am doing food prep for the week! I love it cause the chicken/sweet potatoes/veggies combo has such great nutritional value and is so filling! I’ve never added hummus with it but I’ll totally try that this week! I LOVE food prep so much because with my job it is the only way I am able to eat home cooked meals throughout the week instead of going out to eat all the time. The easiest way I have found to do food prep is to pick two simple meals and make a bunch of it for the week. It’s also so quick if my husband grills all the meat so I can focus on the veggies/other sides prep. Okay I could go on forever about how much I love food prep but I’ll stop.

Yep! Love that! We tried to do grilling / food prep last summer and somehow ended up with a grill on fire and a burnt patch of grass. Adulting, man. It’s hard sometimes. 🙂 Glad you love this concept too!

That looks so simple and so yummy! I love prepping meals ahead of time, because I find it frees up so much time during the week! Thanks for sharing one of your “real life’ recipes, as you called it. lol 🙂

It’s like you read my mind. I just “cleaning frenzied” my house and threw open every window. The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, and I’m ready to drop my winter muffin top and squeeze back into my summer clothes! Pulling out my sheet pans now to make some roasted veggies and shrimp. Thanks for the reminder that sometimes it’s best to get back to basics. And Happy Birthday!

I am going straight to the store – this is going to be my Thursday night dinner. I usually fall off the healthy wagon on Thursday night and let my kids talk me into pizza….NOT tonight!! Thanks for the inspiration POY.

Hey i recently subscribed to your mailing letter and its great. I dont like receiving irrelevant emails usually but i always open yours and find awesome recipes. I would say i try 60% of them and 100% of them are good. Thank you and good job! 😛 yay also your recipe titles are so cute and catchy. Magic bowl, lol funny woman funny woman haha

I was just having a tough time writing my next post for my blog, and I just came here and read this and wham! started feeling much more motivated. It has nothing to do with this post or the food, just the fact that you show up is enough. Thank you!

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